[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[August 22, 1992]
[Pages 1397-1400]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Pride in Alabama Rally in Hoover, Alabama
August 22, 1992

    The President. Roll up your sleeves; we're going to work. Thank you 
very much. Thank you very, very much. Thank you so very much for that 
welcome. I reminded them over in a little rainstorm in a rally in 
Georgia of a country song, ``If you're going to see a rainbow, you've 
got to stand a little rain.'' And you've sure done it. Thank you.
    We are going to have a rainbow. We are going to win this election 
for the American people. May I thank Emory Folmar; and of course, my 
good friend Governor Guy Hunt, your Governor, I support him all the way; 
single out two Members of the United States Congress, Sonny Callahan and 
Bill Dickinson, old friends, both doing a great job; my fishing pal Ray 
Scott, Sportsman of the Year for Alabama.
    Let me say this magic city is a wonderful place to start a magic 
campaign. I've got a feeling this fall we're going to use that magic to 
make some Democrats disappear, disappear from the Presidency, disappear 
from the House. There's a very important battle going on this fall, big 
battle this fall: two fiercely determined rivals locked in gridlock, 
locked in combat. And I'm not just sure whether this thing's going to be 
won by the War Eagles or by the Crimson Tide, but nevertheless, that's 
your business.
    Hey, I did like it, though, when George Archer won the Senior PGA 
Tournament around here. I would have loved those big headlines, ``George 
comes on strong, pulls off big win.'' Help me do that in the fall, 
because we are coming on strong, and we're taking our case to the 
American people. We're bypassing those talk shows and going to you, the 
American people, saying, ``Give us your support.''
    The reason we'll win is we're talking about entirely different 
directions for this country, different agenda. It's a choice about the 
character of the person you want to lead this Nation and the direction 
you want us to go. I believe I am the person to have that support.
    All the other side does is talk about change, change, change. But 
the thing that must guide change are things that never change. We 
believe in a strong defense, in strong families, in leaving the world a 
better place for our children.
    Think for a minute, just think for one minute about the world of 
change that we've seen the last 4 years: the Berlin Wall down; millions 
of people took their fresh first breath of freedom; and America, her 
strength and ideals intact, won the cold war. And you, the taxpayers, 
helped get that job done. These changes are not accidental. The world 
changed because America remained true to her unchanging principles. So 
when Governor Clinton says we're ridiculed around the world, he is 
disconnected. We are respected around the world.
    My opponent said I spent too much time on national security and 
standing up against

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aggression, too much time on foreign policy. Let me tell you something. 
When I took office I saw the chance to help finish off imperial 
communism, and I did it with the help of the American people. I saw the 
chance to help rid our children's dreams of the nuclear nightmare, to 
help them live in a safer world. I did it with your help, and I am proud 
of it. And that is important. So let them criticize and carp. I will 
never apologize for one single minute that I have met trying to make 
this world a more peaceful place for all the young people here today.
    The challenge now: to build a more prosperous and secure nation 
right here at home. And so for these next 73 days I'm going to ask the 
American people: Who do you trust to bring it all home?
    Audience members. Bush! Bush! Bush!
    The President. Bring it home, foreign policy, security policy, and 
economic policy, so that it can make a difference to you right here in 
these neighborhoods, right here in Alabama. I ask for your support based 
on my experience, my ideas, and my character. Let me say this. I share 
Alabama's commitment to family values, and we will never forget: We are 
one Nation under God, one Nation under God.
    So we start right now, right here. I do believe here's a principle 
with which I differ from my opponent, the Governor of Arkansas. I 
believe our Government is too big, and it spends too much of your money. 
I believe the deficit is a dark cloud on our children's future. You know 
it, and I know it. And I put forward a program to do something about it.
    If the Congress sends me any bill spending one penny more than I 
requested, I will veto it fast, right on the spot, faster than the sales 
of Millie's book. I've repeatedly proposed cuts in the Federal spending 
to deflate the deficit. This year alone, I called for the elimination of 
200 specific programs and 4,000 wasteful projects, and this gridlocked 
Congress has said no and diverted your money to pork barrel projects. So 
here's the proposal: If Congress needs more help curing its addiction, I 
say let's give the American people a chance. Give the people the power 
to dedicate up to 10 percent of their tax dollars directly to the 
deficit. If Congress won't cut the deficit, the American people will. 
Give the people that power.
    Let me repeat what I said at our convention. As we get these 
appropriate spending reductions, I will propose a tax cut to give you 
more money to pay your bills, businesses more incentives to create the 
jobs that this economy needs. We've got to do both: lower spending and 
lower taxes.
    One other thing, one other point: We've got to give the small 
businesses a shot in the arm around here. They're the ones that create 
two-thirds of America's jobs. Think of them right here in the mall, 
McMillan's or Norton's Florist, right here in this area. If we're going 
to get this economy moving, small business needs relief from taxation, 
from regulation, and yes, from these crazy lawsuits that are killing us 
off.
    These lawsuits are costing our economy billions of dollars each 
year, and we're fighting now to reform our legal system. As a Nation, 
very candidly, we need to sue each other less and care for each other 
more. About 460 days ago, May 15th, 1991, I sent my first plan to 
control these outrageous lawsuits up to the Congress. It is still 
sitting there, blocked by Congressmen beholden to that powerful lawyers' 
lobby, gridlocked in this liberal Democrat-controlled Congress. I say: 
Let's change the Congress. Let's clean House.
    Audience members. Clean the House! Clean the House! Clean the House!
    The President. Very true. Elect these guys. I'm coming to them in 
just a minute. Let me just remind you, I hate to ruin a wonderful day 
like this, but let me remind you what Governor Clinton wants.
    Audience members. Boo-o-o!
    The President. He's gotten the fever. He's gotten that liberal 
Democratic fever, and he's not even there yet. He wants to raise 
Government spending, he's already proposed this, by $220 billion. He 
wants to raise taxes, the biggest increase in history, by $150 billion. 
And to that, I say: No way, Governor. No way.
    They talk about change. The only thing you'll have left in your 
pocket, if this guy gets in, is change, I'll tell you that. They always 
want to put Government first. That's not so surprising. When you've 
spent most

[[Page 1399]]

of your life in Government, Government is pretty much all you see. I 
spent half my adult life, thank heavens, in the private sector. I earned 
my belief in limited Government from working out, having a job, holding 
a job, working in the oilfields, building a business, and meeting a 
payroll. That is a good credential for anybody that wants to be 
President of the United States of America.
    I learned what all of you have learned and some are now learning. 
That's where I learned how jobs are created, that you can't have 
employees without employers. That's where I learned in this country that 
Government works for the people, not the other way around.
    But in all fairness--we've got to be fair in this election--Governor 
Clinton is not the only one who has forgotten that lesson, if he ever 
knew it. There's a whole party of his colleagues right up there on 
Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, who have spent their entire lives on the 
Government payroll. I call them the gridlocked Democratic liberal-
controlled Congress, and I don't believe the Governor can stand up to 
them. The last thing we need is a rubber-check Congress and a rubber-
stamp President. We don't need that.
    And look, I've tried to work with this Congress. You all remember at 
the Inaugural Address I said, ``People didn't send us here to bicker, 
they sent us here to get something done.'' I held out my hand, and these 
old mossbacks bit it off. Enough! We've got to change the Congress.
    So we're talking clean House. We need Spencer Bachus here for the 
Sixth District. We need Terry Everett for the Second District, Don 
Sledge for the Third, Mickey Strickland for the Fourth, Terry Smith for 
the Fifth, and Kervin Jones for the Seventh. And then we can clean 
House.
    While we're at it, the Senate needs a little work. Those liberals 
that control that Senate are blocking me every inch of the way. Give us 
Richard Sellers for the Senate. Make change. Make change.
    Look, I know this and you know it: Americans are tired of the blame 
game, sick of all the excuses, tired of these people up there acting 
like they're the candidates for the next episode of ``American 
Gladiators''. But I'll tell you this: I am tired of it, too. Every 
American knows the truth. Congress--look at the post office, look at the 
bank--they have become corrupt, conceited, confused, a body of these 
PAC's, perks, privileges, partisanship, and paralysis. We must change 
the Congress with which Bill Clinton is interlocked.
    You ask him when he comes south. He talks about change. What about 
changing the one institution whose control hasn't changed in 38 years, 
since he was 7 years old? The Congress. They have a lower rate of 
turnover than the Soviet Politburo.
    So it's time to say, ``Enough is enough.'' If you want to get rid of 
that deadlock, give me some new faces in that Congress and watch this 
country move forward. There is so much to do: a balanced budget 
amendment, locking this line-item veto into place so we can cut that 
spending. Give the parents some choice in the schools that their kids 
attend--private, public, or religious. Give us that kind of a positive 
change.
    I know this is a long race and that some have counted us out. Oh 
boy, are we having some problems with the national media. They don't 
know good news when they see it. They are going to know change when they 
see it. And we're going to win this in the final analysis on this basis 
because I trust the American people, and I hope I have earned the trust 
of the American people.
    When I think of the great patriotism shown by this wonderful State 
of Alabama and I think of those men and women that served in Desert 
Storm and I think of the opposition I had in the Congress, I say let's 
change it. So if we're faced with a problem again, we can solve it just 
as quick as we did Desert Storm in spite of that opposition.
    So, my message is this--after once again saying thanks. I can't tell 
you what this does for the spirit, this, the largest rally, as Emory 
told me, he's ever seen around here.
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. So you tell the opposition we stand for family 
values. And the best evidence of this, standing right here with me 
today, is Barbara Bush, who does so much for literacy in this country.

[[Page 1400]]

    Audience members. Barbara! Barbara! Barbara!
    The President. You tell them we stand for family and faith and one 
Nation under God. And then go tell the gridlocked Congress and Governor 
Clinton: If you can't run with the big dogs, stay under the porch.
    Thank you all very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 2:55 p.m. at the 
                        Riverchase Galleria shopping mall. In his 
                        remarks, he referred to Emory Fowler, Mayor of 
                        Montgomery. A tape was not available for 
                        verification of the content of these remarks.